Police Investigating Robbery At Plymouth McDonald’s

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Police in Plymouth are looking for three masked individuals who pulled off an early morning robbery at McDonald’s.

Authorities said the incident happened early Wednesday morning at the McDonald’s restaurant on the 2700 block of Annapolis Circle North, which is near Interstate 494 and Highway 55 in Plymouth.

When police got to the scene, staff at the restaurant told them as many as three suspects entered and forced them into the freezer. The suspects then forced the restaurant manager to give them an undisclosed amount of money.

Investigators said the three robbers used the dark of night as cover to sneak inside the store where four employees were working.

“These individuals were able to make entry through an unsecure door,” said Capt. Jeff Swiatkiewicz.

The employees were caught off guard by the trio.

“One of the suspects had displayed some sort of gun,” Swiatkiewicz said.

Two of the robbers were wearing black hoodies, the other was wearing red.

All three had the hoods up and drawstrings pulled tight so you couldn’t see their faces.

They had white gloves on their hands and spent less than three minutes inside the store.

“At some point the employees were led to the freezer area and then locked in there and that’s when the suspects completed the robbery and fled,” Swiatkiewicz said.

Investigators say the cash register was unlocked, as well, giving them easy access.

The employees locked inside the freezer couldn’t tell if they fled on foot or by car or what direction they went.

They were locked inside for less than 10 minutes.

“There is an emergency button inside the freezer for situations like this so they were able to trigger that and that dispatches us, as well,” Swiatkiewicz said.

Police arrived to find shaken employees but no one was hurt.

Right now investigators hope surveillance video of the crime scene will help lead them to the persons responsible for this early morning robbery.

A fourth employee was in a separate part of the store cleaning Wednesday morning. Investigators say she was wearing headphones and heard and saw nothing.

They are also checking surveillance video from businesses in the area to see if it captured a car leaving or people running from the scene.

Reg Chapman joined WCCO-TV in May of 2009. He came to WCCO from WNBC-TV in New York City where he covered an array of stories for the station including the Coney Island plane crash, the crane collapse on the city’s east side, 50 shots fired at...